


Bestest Friend

by erstwriter



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: AU, Angst, Both of them, Children, Fluff, M/M, fuck knows where this came from
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-08
Updated: 2013-09-08
Packaged: 2017-12-26 00:27:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/959392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/erstwriter/pseuds/erstwriter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Percy Jackson is five when he meet Nico di Angelo. Nico is funny and strange and the perfect friend. Too perfect, but Percy falls in love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bestest Friend

The first time Percy meets Nico, he's five and playing in the back garden. His mum's watching him, a hand shading her eyes as he runs around the yellowed grass. Percy wanders to the back of the garden, where the bushes tower over him and insects scuttle across the paving stones. He sits on the floor, spitting in the dry mud and making patterns with it on the floor. The masterpiece is perfected, and he looks up to see someone staring at him. The boy is his age, and is just standing there, with his head tilted to one side.

"Who are you?" Percy asks. He looks around, but he can't see a way the boy could have got into the garden. 

"Nico." He sits down next to Percy. "What are you doing?"

Percy shows him how he's painting with the mud. Nico seems a little unsure at first, saying that spitting is dirty, but Percy shows him how it's perfectly safe.

"Spit can't be bad, cause it's in your mouth anyway." Percy's quite pleased with this piece of reasoning, and Nico considers it and agrees. 

They create winding patterns, Percy's irregular and sprawled across the floors, Nico's neat and contained within one stone. Somehow, they both end up with mud up their arms and faces, even when they try their hardest to be careful. 

"You're really messy." Nico says, and Percy sticks his tongue out. Nico giggles. 

"Percy!" His mother shouts, and Percy starts guiltily. "Percy, why are you so muddy?" She tuts and looks at the dried mud smeared over the floor. "Lovely pictures, dear."

"Nico helped me." Percy says, pointing at his new friend, who offers Sally a shy smile.

"Nico?" She frowns.

"Yeah, Nico. He lives next door." Percy gestures at the house next to them, tall and gloomy. His mother smiles, and waves at Nico.

"Lovely. Would you like a drink?" Sally pauses. "Would, um, Nick like one too?"

"Mom, it's Nico." Percy says, with all the derision a five year old can manage, and Sally smiles again. 

"Of course. Sorry dear. Blue squash?" Percy nods, and looks back at Nico. 

"Nico wants blue squash too." His mother walks back indoors, and Percy sits down again, closer to Nico. "Do you really live in that house next door? It,s kinda creepy."

"Yeah. It's not that creepy inside." Percy looks up at the house, with its windows looking on into darkened rooms, and shivers.

"If you say so. Come on, I know a really good tree to climb."

When Sally comes back, they're gone. She shakes her head, and leaves the cup of dyed blue squash by the dirt patterns. 

*****

Percy doesn't see Nico for the next few days. It's only when he's in the park, balancing on the adventure trail, that he spots Nico sitting on one end of a seesaw, his chin resting in his hand. 

"Hey!" Percy runs over, and Nico looks up at him in surprise. 

"Percy?" Percy grins, and grabs the other end of the seesaw. 

"Come on. You can't just *sit* on a seesaw."

Nico thinks it's perfectly possible, but he doesn't want to argue, so he lets Percy jump onto one end. 

"Where are your parents?" Percy's only just noticed that there's no-one hovering around Nico.

"They're in the doctor's." Nico says, and Percy frowns.

"What, and you're just allowed here by yourself?" Nico nods. "Lucky. D'you want to go on the slide?"

Nico follows Percy as he runs off to the slide. 

*****

When school starts, Percy looks for the dark-haired boy in his class. He can't find him, and he's a little disappointed, so he sits next to Tyson instead, who walks weirdly and talks too loudly, but seems nice. Nico doesn't turn up in the playground, either. 

He sees Nico again that weekend, standing in the middle the garden next door.

"Nico!" The boy turns his head, and waves. "Can I come over there?" 

Nico looks up at the house. "Um, my dad's a bit weird about stuff like that. I'll come over to you." He drops the flower he was holding, and climbs over the fence. Percy watches as the fence wobbles slightly, but holds up, and Nico jumps down to the ground. 

"Hey." Nico nods, and doesn't say anything. "You're not at my school, right?"

"I don't go to school. Dad teaches me at home." Percy's jaw drops.

"Really?" Nico shrugs.

"Yeah. He thinks it's better for me." Percy stares at Nico, who just bites his lip.

"Your dad is so cool. I wish I didn't have to go to school." Percy imagines how much better life would be if he didn't have to trudge to school every day, and spend hours cooped up inside.

"Not really. It's not that great." Nico kicks at the ground, as Percy takes a minute to process this information. Nico is officially awesome.

"You wanna play explorers?"

*****

They spend days together, running around jungles and deserts and ancient castles with dragons in them, and rescuing the tribes and princesses they meet. Percy has other friends as well, Tyson and Frank and Hazel, but whenever they're not around Nico turns up, always ready for whatever new game Percy has planned. 

"Nico, d'you have any other friends?" Percy aks, in the lull between fighting the evil king's armies and rescuing the magic sword. 

"Not really. I don't go to school, remember?" Nico looks back at his house, the way he always does whenever the subject comes up.

"But what do you do when you're not playing with me?" Percy can't understand how Nico doesn't have any other friends. Surely his dad has friends with kids?

"I just do stuff by myself. Anyway, we have to slay this dragon." Nico drags Percy back into the imaginary world that's brighter than the real one.

*****  
"But mom! What about all my friends?" Percy can't believe it. They can't move to New York. Everyone he knows lives here.

"You'll make new friends. This is important for my job, Percy. And there'll be a better school." Sally was beginning to get worry lines. This job would mean a whole new start to her career, a chance to finally do something other than just sit behind a desk. 

"What's wrong with the school I'm going to now?" Percy pouts, and Sally sighs.

"You'll thank me when you're older, okay? We're going next week. It's all finalised. I can't change anything now." Sally stood up, and left Percy sitting on his bed.  
*****

"I'm moving away." They say at the same time, breathless. Frowning, Nico gestures for Percy to go first. 

"Mom's got a job in New York, so we're moving there." Percy says, and it comes out in a jumbled mess. "Why are you grinning?"

"Because we're moving to New York too!" Nico grabs Percy in a hug. 

"No way!" He hugs back, and they dance around the garden.

When Percy tells his mom later, he's expecting her to be surprised, but she just smiles, and continues chopping the onion. "Lovely, dear."

*****

Percy can't believe the coincidence when Nico moves into the same street as them. Nico sits in his bedroom, and they play with action figures for hours. 

Sally puts up with him rambling about Nico for so long, and then interuppts. 

"But next week, you'll be going to school, so you can make some proper friends." Percy crumples his forehead. 

"What do you mean, proper friends?" Why isn't Nico a proper friend? Sally pauses. 

"Never mind, dear. I just meant that you can make more friends." 

*****

He does make more friends at school. There's Grover, who he sits next to, who's funny and good at running, and Connor and Travis, who're twins and are always getting told off by the teacher. There's Katie and Annabeth as well, who the twins always tease, and Leo, who's really good at making things with the piles of Lego during golden time.

Nico's still his best friend, though. He always looks tired, and Percy tells this to his mom. Maybe she could do something about it. 

"Percy, you're the only one who can do anything about Nico." He doesn't get it, but Sally tells him to go lay the table. 

*****

It's his sixth birthday. Everybody from his class is there, and there's a table full of blue food. They play party games, and Percy is so hyperactive on the sugar that he almost doesn't notice that Nico's missing. He tugs on Sally's sleeve.

"Mom, why isn't Nico here? He should be here, it's my birthday." 

"He's probably busy." Percy scowls.

"But it's my birthday!" Sally sighs. 

"Why don't you go play with the other children? I'm sure Nico will turn up later." 

Percy does go off, but all the games seem a bit dull without Nico there. Even when they're eating the bright blue sponge cake, Nico doesn't turn up.

*****

Percy sees Nico a week later, and he asks why he didn't come to his birthday party. 

"I just thought you wouldn't want me there, that's all." Nico shrugs.

"Of course I would! You're my bestest friend!" Percy couldn't believe that Nico would think that. 

"Sorry. D'you wanna play wizards?"

*****

For the next few years, Percy sees Nico about once a week. He still hasn't turned up to one of Percy's birthday parties, always giving an excuse and a shrug. He hasn't even told Percy when his own birthday is. 

They're ten, lying in his bedroom floor, playing a board game. 

"Nico?" The boy, his hair now long and beginning to cover his face, looks up.

"Yeah?"

"Why don't I know anything about you?" Percy narrows his eyes. "I mean, you know loads about me. You've even met my mom. But you've never even told me what your parents do. I've never been to your house, or anything."

Nico looked down. "It just didn't come up, I guess." 

"Tell me now." Percy drops the card he's holding. 

"Well. Um. My dad's a businessman. And my mom works in a shop." Nico seems unsure.

"What business? What shop?" 

"Look, can we not talk about this?" Nico sounds angry. 

"I just wanted to -"

"Well, it's none of your buisness. I'm gonna go now." Nico stands up suddenly, and pushes the door open. Percy watches him leave, slightly shocked. He was only asking.

When he tells his mom about their fight later, she frowns. 

"Don't you think you're too old for friends like him?" 

"What do you mean? Friends like Nico?" 

"You know what I mean. Friends that aren't, well, you know." She gives him a look that says 'stop being so stupid'. He's just confused.

"No, I don't know!" Sally sighs. She's doing a lot of that recently. 

"It doesn't matter. Have you done your homework?"

*****

Nico starts to come less frequently. By the time Percy's thirteen, he's lucky if he's sees Nico once a month. When he asks where he's been, he's met with shrugs and blank stares. 

Nico's changed. He wears black jeans and a leather jacket, and talks about weird bands with strange names. He calls himself a Goth. 

Percy begins to notice the other sex for the first time, as well. A few of his friends had had girlfriends already, of course, but he hadn't seen the appeal. Now, he realises how attractive they are. 

He manages to get a girlfriend, a pretty girl in his year called Reyna, who's clever and funny. Nico greets the news with a shrug. Percy realises he's never heard Nico actually talk about anyone else. 

"D'you have a crush on anyone?" He asks, and Nico stares at him for a moment. "Come on, you can tell me. I won't laugh, I promise."

After a pause, Nico says he does. 

"Have you asked her out?" Percy can't imagine Nico has, as quiet as he is, but it's worth asking. 

"No. They don't like me back." Nico says, and fiddles with his fingers. 

"You should just ask anyway. You never know." 

"Mmm. Maybe. Though why I'm taking relationship advice from you, I don't know." 

"Hey!"

*****

If there's one thing Percy didn't expect, it's that a month later Nico would ask him out. The other thing he didn't expect was that he would say yes. He didn't think he was gay, but then he noticed Nico. He notices the way Nico laughs, starting off with just a smile spreading across his face, and then developing into a full blown laugh, leaning into Percy as they both run out of breath. He notices the way Nico pushes his hair out of his face, and the way his eyes light up whenever he looks at Percy. He notices how thin Nico is, and he wants to do nothing more than hold him tight and keep him safe. 

They go on dates, wandering round New York and giggling. They kiss for the first time in Percy's bedroom, and it's sort of awkward, neither of them quite sure how it works. Nico's visits are still irregular, and Percy still has no idea where Nico's house even is, but he doesn't mind. 

He doesn't tell the people at school who he's dating. For one, they don't know Nico, and he just doesn,'t know how they'll react to the news that he's gay. He's still accepting it. Reyna, his old girlfriend, had broken up with him a week before Nico had asked him out, anyway, and she was now dating a nice enough guy called Jason. 

*****  
He tells his mom after they've been dating for five months, and she starts crying. 

"Mom? Are you not okay with me being, you know, um-"

"No, it's not that. You did say Nico, right?"

"Yeah. He's really special. I mean, I've known him for so long, and I can't believe that I didn't realise it before." Percy drifts off into thoughts of Nico.

"Percy, I thought you knew. I thought, I thought Nico wasn't there any more." She swallows, keeping the tears under control. 

"What? You thought I knew what?" Percy's confused, he's angry, he doesn't understand what the hell she's going on about. 

"Nico's - Nico's not real. He's your imaginary friend, Percy, he has been since you were five."

What? His brain shuts down. 

*****

Nico doesn't appear again. Percy doesn't believe his mom, but Nico doesn't turn up to prove her wrong. 

He grows up. He dates other people, girls and boys. He tries not to think of Nico, but when somebody remarks about goths, or he catches a glimpse of someone with pale skin and dark hair, dressed in black and leaning against a wall, he can't help but remember. 

He gets a normal job. He sits in an office, and goes home at night to Annabeth and his two kids. One of them's named Nico. 

He dies in a normal way too, a heart attack at seventy three. It's only then, in a hospital bed surrounded by his children and grandchildren, that he raises his head and sees, leant against the hospital wall, an old man who's still wearing that leather jacket. 

"I think I loved you." He says, and Nico smiles, tear rolling down his cheek. 

His family think he's senile, but that's because none of them hear the 'me too'.

**Author's Note:**

> So. A little something. Inspired by a song I've forgotten about best friends. I know Nico/Leo is the popular ship now, but Percico.


End file.
